Tankers have a point against Obama
Eighty days after the explosion of the platform Deepwater Horizon BP, while 35,000 to 60,000 barrels of crude continue to flee each day in the Gulf of Mexico, the Administration faces Obama in the oil industry courtrooms.
Latest twist, a Louisiana appellate court has imposed a setback Thursday at the White House. On 22 June a judge in New Orleans overturned the six-month moratorium on new offshore drilling more than 150 meters deep, decreed by the Obama Administration. The magistrate ruled the gel arbitrary, decided by him without consideration for its regional economic impact. The executive has therefore appealed and lost again on Thursday.
Thirty drilling platforms in the Gulf these are now hostage to this legal battle.The cost of leasing a drilling platform is estimated at 1 million per day. As a result of thirty platforms in the Gulf, the bill accumulated over three months would amount to 2.7 billion dollars for companies exploring the deposits of the Gulf. The extension of the moratorium could put 50,000 employees out of work in Louisiana and the neighboring oil states.
Go drill "elsewhere"
Along with judges, elected Republicans deposit burst of bills or amendments to overturn the moratorium. For its part, the British government also said to be opposed to a freeze of all offshore drilling and focuses on a case by case basis. "We will not allow drilling until we have no assurance that the plans for all wells (…) represent what can be done better," says the UK Department of Energy.
Already, several U.S. companies threaten to go elsewhere to drill. "If the moratorium is maintained, we will have to redirect our resources to other parts of the world we are authorized to work," says one at Exxon Mobil, the first American company. In the U.S., the oil sector is characterized by the presence of a multitude of small companies, which bore alongside the majors. Thus, Swift Energy, based in Houston, told AFP that she was going to drill more in Texas, on land, at the expense of its operations off the coast of Louisiana.
In California, oil companies had rejoiced the green light to drill offshore, given by Barack Obama just days before the spill.The disaster has brought back the White House on this concession to the oil lobby for support of allied Republicans in Congress on the draft energy law discussed step by step for over a year. The company Venoco, which had projects off California, will focus on its land drilling. Problem: the volumes available in the ground are much lower than those buried under the ocean floor.